The Shambala Carnival is the stuff of legend. Genuinely. The effort our crowd put into their costumes each year is truly mindblowing – and each year, the bar seems to get higher, and higher, and higher. Truly one of the highlights of the festival, with thousands of people parading in their most creative, hilarious, homemade finery.

The theme is chosen by our community each year and put to the vote. The Shambala 2026 carnival theme is….

LYRICAL GENIUS

This one’s all about turning lyrics into looks, so take a line and run absolutely wild with it… after last year’s show of pun-based mastery, we know you’ve got it in you.

From chart-toppers to cult classics, power ballads to guilty pleasures, protest songs to pop perfection – all genres, eras and artists, all misheard lyrics, deep cuts and one-hit wonders are fair game. Interpret freely. Create wondrously.

Here’s a few to get your creative cogs a-turning…

Hop in a big yellow taxi, or on the midnight train, we’re off to never never land! Welcome to the jungle, where all the young dudes and dancing queens laugh in the purple rain. Overhead, a bat out of hell flies, just like the white wing dove, past 99 red balloons. Are you the egg man? Are you the walrus?

(A little note from our sustainability team – please be mindful to make your carnival costumes from recycled or second hand materials wherever possible, and swerve the temptation to buy tat from Amazon!)